One Happy Thanksgiving
by Ilex the Elder
Summary: It's the first lonely holiday for Professor Oak and Delia Ketchum. To fight off their holiday blahs, they decide to have Thanksgiving dinner together. When dinner gets a bit out of hand, however, the two neighbors end up in a compromising position... and
1. Chapter 1

Looking up from his research, Professor Oak sighed and glanced out the window of his hilltop laboratory. Even though today was Thanksgiving, it was just another workday to him. His wife was dead, his son was off on a research expedition in some remote jungle, his daughter-in-law was with grandson Gary in Johto, and granddaughter May was spending the holiday weekend with her boyfriend at college. Even his assistant Tracey had left for the Orange Islands the day before to spend the holiday with his family. Sure, he had his Pokémon to keep him company, but today was a day that you normally spent with family and friends. The closest thing he had come to actually being with a friend was when Ash had called earlier to tell him about the latest Pokémon that he had caught. Professor Oak had hoped that working on his latest research project would help him forget that today was a holiday, but no luck. As he looked out the window, he caught sight of a white house with a picket fence at the bottom of the hill. Even though he was fairly certain that Ash would've also called his mother today, he decided to go tell Delia about Ash's message. At least it would give him an excuse to get out of the house and forget about being alone today. If he could spend at least part of the day with one live person, then perhaps today wouldn't be so depressing. 

---

Delia Ketchum was startled by the knock at her door. She was even more surprised to see that her visitor was Professor Oak.

"Professor? What are you doing here? " she asked as she opened the door. "I thought you'd be spending the day with your family."

"Unfortunately, my family's scattered about the country today," he said with a sad smile.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," she said sympathetically. "Would you like to come in for a moment?"   
"That's very kind of you, Delia. I'd like that." He stepped inside and noticed something odd. "No cooking? I'd thought that you would've had a turkey going." He had hoped that he would've been able to share part of her Thanksgiving dinner; Delia was a fantastic cook.

"No," she said with a trace of sadness in her voice. "I didn't see much point in it, being that it's just me this year." Professor Oak followed her to the empty kitchen. "Years ago when my husband was alive and Ash was little, we used to have a huge Thanksgiving feast: turkey, cranberries, stuffing, pie." She smiled at the memory. 

Professor Oak was salivating.

Delia's smile faded. "But now, I don't even have Ash here this year. No one at all."

"Oh, that reminds me. The reason I stopped by was to tell you that Ash called and he wanted me to tell you that he was sorry that he couldn't be with you today." 

"He did? Oh, that's so sweet. He left a message on my answering machine earlier while I was out in the garden."

"Well, guess I'd better go, then. That was the reason I stopped by." He turned to go.

"Wait," Delia said, laying a hand on his arm. "I hate the thought of you having to go back to an empty house, especially with it being Thanksgiving and all." Her face brightened. "I have an idea. Seeing that you're alone today and I'm alone today, why don't we spend Thanksgiving together? That way neither one of us will be alone."

"Well, I'd hate for you to have to put yourself out just for me."

"Nonsense," she said as she led him back to the kitchen. "It's no trouble at all." She began searching through the refrigerator. "Now what shall we eat?" she wondered as she pulled out a loaf of bread." I didn't even bother getting a turkey. It's too much for just one person."

"Oh, Delia, don't worry about that. Anything will be fine." He started looking though the cabinets. "How about this?" he said as he pulled out a box of microwave popcorn.

"Popcorn? For Thanksgiving?" 

"Sure, why not? Sometimes I'll eat a whole bag of this for dinner."

Delia made a face. "You need to eat better than that, Professor." She continued rummaging through the contents of her refrigerator and located a package of sliced cheese. "How about grilled cheese sandwiches instead?"

"That would be wonderful." 

"Oh, look," Delia said as she pulled a bottle out of the back of the refrigerator. "I'd forgotten about this."

"What is it?"

"It's a bottle of wine," she said, inspecting the contents. "And it's been here for ages."

Professor Oak took the bottle of wine from her and examined the label. "Looks like it may still be good. Does red wine go with grilled cheese sandwiches?"

Delia smiled as she put the bread and cheese on the countertop and began searching in a nearby drawer for a corkscrew. "Let's find out. Besides, I was saving that for a special occasion and Thanksgiving would fall into that category, don't you think?"

---

After their enjoyable non-traditional Thanksgiving supper, the pair ended up on the couch. As the evening progressed and the level in the wine bottle grew lower and lower, the two began to get slightly tipsy.

"Which glass is this?" Delia asked as she sloshed more wine into her companion's glass.

"I don't know," he said. "I lost count."

"What shall we toast to now?" Delia asked, raising her glass.

Professor Oak stared at her with a crooked smile. "How about a toast to Delia Ketchum, a superb hostess and fine-looking woman."

Delia giggled. "A fine-looking woman? I didn't know you thought of me like that."

"Oh, yes," Samuel slurred as he sipped his wine. "I think about you a lot. Like the time a few weeks ago when you were working in the garden and you were wearing those blue jeans. I thought to myself, 'Delia has the most incredible hips.'"

Delia was pleasantly surprised. "Really? I thought the only reason you stopped by was to check out my tomatoes."

"Well, those were pretty nice too." But he wasn't referring to her vegetables.

"That's surprising. I thought the only thing you ever thought about was Pokémon."

Samuel made a face. "Oh no, no. I enjoy studying Pokémon, but I also enjoy studying you, too. Your hair, your face, your..." His gaze moved downward.

Delia gasped in mock horror. "Why, Professor Oak! You really are a naughty professor, aren't you?"

Delia's reaction made him realize that he had probably shared a little too much personal information with her. "Sorry, I probably shouldn't have said that. You must think I'm a dirty old man."

"No, no," she assured him. "Actually, I think you're pretty cute. It's rather refreshing to see this side of you. Knowing that you're not just some cold, clinical scientist who thinks about nothing but work all the time."

"Is that what you think of me?"

"Well, not always." She grinned roguishly. "The other day when I stopped by your place, you were on the floor looking for something."

"Oh, yes. I had dropped my pen and it rolled under my desk."

Delia smiled mischievously. "Well, while you were looking for your pen, I was checking out your rear end."

Samuel was shocked. "You were?"

"Yes," Delia grinned. "You do have a cute butt, you know. Except you keep it hidden under that lab coat of yours all the time."

"Well, I do work out in the mornings with Machamp and Hitmonlee," he admitted.

"You're in fantastic shape for a man who's...who's...say, how old are you anyway?"

"I turned fifty-four back in August."

"You had a birthday in August?" Delia's hand flew to her mouth. "Oh no! I forgot all about it."

"Oh, Delia, that's all right. Don't worry about it."

"No. It's not all right. I forgot about your birthday and I'm going to make it up to you. Wait here." She slowly got to her feet and staggered to the kitchen. A couple of minutes later she returned with a Twinkie topped with a candle. "There. Happy birthday. I couldn't find a cake, so I had to use this instead. And I didn't have fifty-four candles, either. Just this one."

He was touched by her gesture. "Oh, Delia, you didn't have to go to all this trouble just for me."

"No. It's the least I can do after I forgot your birthday and all." She started to sing. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy..." She paused in mid-song. "Uh, I forgot the rest of the words. Now you have to make a wish and blow out the candle," which was tipping over.

He thought for a second, then blew out the candle as it fell off the cake. 

Delia cheered. "Yeah! Now you'll get your wish. What did you wish for?"

"I can't tell you or it won't come true. Besides," he looked at her lustfully, "you'd probably slap me if I told you what it was."

Delia giggled again. "Samuel, you really are naughty! But you're a real cutie, too." She leaned over and started playing with his hair. "You know, you would be even cuter if you could get this one piece of hair to stay put." 

"I know, I know. That one section always seems to have a mind of its own."

"You know, every time you stop by I keep saying to myself that I'm going to get a comb and...hey! Wait here." She stood up, tottered for a moment, then disappeared into the kitchen. When she returned a moment later, she had a small comb in her hand. Standing in front of him, she started running the comb through his hair. "There! Now I'll make that wild hair of yours behave." When she had finished with the front of his head, instead of sitting down next to him to work on the back, she leaned over further until Samuel found himself in the enviable position of having his head buried in Delia's cleavage. When she had finished, she stepped back to admire her handiwork. "There, that's pretty good, if I do say so myself."

"I was just thinking the same thing," he said, looking at her chest.

Delia tossed the comb on the floor and reached for the bottle of wine. "Let's have some more...oh!" She gasped as she accidentally spilled the remaining contents of the bottle on his shirt. "Oh, no! Oh, I'm so sorry, Samuel." She started dabbing at the stain with the edge of his lab coat but stopped when she saw that she was making a red stain on it, too.

"Oh, don't worry about it, Delia," he reassured her. "It's a red shirt and the wine's red. It'll blend in."   
"No. It'll leave a permanent stain if I don't wash that out right away. Take off your shirt and I'll throw it in the washing machine right now." 

"Delia, that's not..."

Before he could stop her, she started pulling off his lab coat. The next thing he knew, she was tugging at his shirt.

"Wow, you have been working out, haven't you?" Delia said admiringly as she yanked the shirt over his head. "You know, you really do need to walk around without that lab coat on once in a while."

She gathered up his things and started for the laundry room. "Oh, wait. I hate to run the washing machine with such a small load." To his amazement, Delia started unbuttoning her sweater. His eyes grew even wider as she took off her shirt and added it to the pile of clothes. "There, now we'll have a full load of laundry." His eyes followed her every movement as she disappeared into the laundry room. He heard her start the washing machine and she reappeared a minute later. "There, that feels much better," she said as she plopped down on the sofa. "It's getting pretty hot in here, don't you think?"

"Oh, yes," he said, his eyes riveted to her pink bra. "Very hot."

"Well, what should we do while we're waiting for the laundry?" she asked as she took another sip of wine.

"Oh, I have several ideas," he said with a sly grin.

"Samuel, you really are bad. But I like seeing this side of you." Before he knew what was happening, Delia leaned over and kissed him. She pulled away and made a face. "You really are a nice-looking man, but you need to learn something about kissing." He had been so shocked by her advances that he hadn't even attempted to return her kiss. "Let's try again." As she kissed him again, he placed his arms around her and let his hands roam across her bare back. "Now that's more like it," Delia said, giggling, as she pushed him down on the sofa.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Samuel awoke with a pounding headache. He opened his eyes and quickly shut them again as the bright sunlight streaming through the window made him wince in pain.

__

Oh, my aching head.

His carefully opened his eyes again, and tried to focus on the nightstand next to him.

__

Where's my clock?

Something wasn't right here. The clock wasn't on the nightstand like it usually was. After he rubbed his eyes to clear up his fuzzy vision, he blinked at the sunlight shining through the white lace curtains.

__

White lace? Those aren't my curtains. This isn't my bedroom. What's going on here?

He then noticed something else.

__

And where's my shirt? 

He peered under the blankets and discovered that his shirt wasn't the only piece of clothing missing.

__

What happened to my clothes?

A movement in the bed next to him startled him. He slowly turned around and discovered that Delia, who was just as naked as he was, was lying in the bed next to him. Horrified, Samuel stared at her in disbelief.

__

Oh my God, I've bedded Mrs. Ketchum!

Startled awake by his sudden movement, Delia opened her eyes and then quickly shut them again.

"Oh, what a headache," she mumbled.

"Uh, Delia..."

At the sound of Samuel's voice, Delia's eyes popped wide open. "Professor Oak? What are you doing..." She then realized that she didn't have any clothes on and the blanket was down around her waist. Shrieking, she frantically pulled the blanket up around her shoulders. "What are you doing here? What happened? What's going on?"

"Now, now, Mrs. Ketchum, don't panic," he tried frantically to reassure her. "I'm sure there's a logical scientific explanation for what's happened here."

"Which is?"

"Uh, I haven't figured it out yet."

Delia pulled the covers up around her chin.

"Look, maybe nothing happened between us last night." Although he personally didn't believe it since neither one of them had a stitch of clothing on. "Why don't we try to remember what happened last night and try to reconstruct what happened?"

"Okay," Delia said in a small voice. "What do you remember from last night?"

He thought about it for a second. "I remember that we were on the sofa, drinking wine. Lots of wine," he said as his head started pounding again.

Delia groaned. "Don't remind me."

"And you accidentally spilled some wine on my shirt."

"I remember now," Delia said. "I made you take off your shirt so I could do the laundry. And then..." Her face reddened at the memory. "I took off my shirt too, didn't I?"

Samuel nodded.

Delia continued. "And then I asked what we should do while we were waiting for the laundry. And then we started kissing."

Samuel nodded again. "And then you started saying something about how maybe we should take off all of our clothes so that you could have a full load of laundry."

Delia was horrified. "I said _that_?"

"Well, yes," Samuel said reluctantly. "After we...well, after we did what you suggested, you disappeared for a few minutes. When I couldn't find you, I started looking around for you and found you here, in the bedroom. You said that you forgot where the washing machine was. And then we...things get a little fuzzy after that."

Delia sank even further under the blankets, her face growing redder by the second. "I was lying on the bed and you said that you wanted to conduct some research."

"I did? What kind of research?"

Delia made a "you know" face.

"Oh. _That_ kind of research. Oh wait, now I remember. You called me the 'naughty professor' and then I asked you which part of your body you wanted me to study first and you said your..."

A mortified Delia completely disappeared under the blanket.

The two sat in awkward silence for a moment. Finally, Samuel spoke up.

"If it's any consolation, it was the most memorable Thanksgiving I've ever had." 

Delia groaned.

Samuel stared at the lump under the covers for a moment. When he realized that his attempt to console her had been unsuccessful, he sighed and rolled over in the bed.

Delia, who wished that she could completely vanish at that moment, closed her eyes and tried to shut out the whole scene. But she couldn't ignore the incessant pounding in her head, so she decided to get an aspirin. Peering out from the covers, she searched the floor for something to cover herself with. Remembering that her bathrobe was in the adjacent bathroom, Delia slid out of bed. Just as she stood up, Samuel rolled over and was treated to a vision of a completely naked Delia, who screamed and pulled the blankets off of the bed in a desperate attempt to cover herself. "Turn around! Turn around!" she ordered. After quickly complying with her request, Samuel tried to defuse the awkwardness of the situation and lessen her embarrassment. "Delia, if it makes you feel any better, you have nothing to be ashamed of."

She looked up from knotting the blanket around herself. "What?"

"You really do have a beautiful body. And not only that, but you're also a beautiful person on the inside as well as the outside."

Delia was surprised. "You...you really mean that?"

"Of course I do. You were kind enough to take me into your home on Thanksgiving, you always take time out to talk to me whenever I stop by, you're a good neighbor, and a good friend. You're a good person, Delia. I…I've been attracted to you for some time now."

Delia was stunned. "You have? Why didn't you tell me until now?"

"Well, they say that alcohol does lower your inhibitions."

"Don't remind me," Delia said, hugging the blanket closer to her.

"I...I don't know. I guess because I wasn't certain that you felt the same way about me. That you thought of me only as your next-door neighbor, your son's instructor, the crazy Pokémon-obsessed researcher at the top of the hill."

"Samuel, I always enjoy your visits. I like when you stop by to talk to me and let me know what Ash is doing. Since he's been gone, I value your visits even more." She smiled to herself. "And you do have a nice butt too," she said, checking it out once more.

Samuel smiled. "Delia, even though I'm sorry about the circumstances under which we ended up this way, I can't deny that I've been wishing for some time that we could be together like this. I just wish it wouldn't have taken getting drunk to end up this way."

Delia unknotted the blanket from around herself, placed it back on the bed, then crawled underneath it. "Okay, you can turn around now."

Samuel flipped over and found himself face-to-face with Delia, who then proceeded to climb atop him. 

"This time, I want to remember exactly what happens between us," she said as she kissed him.

---

"Hey, look guys!" Ash said as he pointed to the building with the giant "P" on the roof. "There's a Pokémon Center. Let's stop here so I can call my mom. I feel bad because I didn't get to talk to her yesterday." 

As Brock and Misty gave their Pokémon to Nurse Joy (and Misty bopped Brock on the head for shamelessly flirting with the red-haired nurse), Ash dialed his house.

"You know, I think that was the best shower I've ever had," Samuel said as he toweled himself off. 

The phone in the next room started ringing.

"Oh, there's the phone. Do you want me to get it?" Samuel asked as he peeked into the shower.

Delia, who was busy washing her hair, replied. "If you would, that would be nice."

After treating himself to an extended glimpse, Samuel shut the shower curtain, wrapped the towel around himself, and ran into the bedroom. As he picked up the phone receiver, both he and the caller gasped and exchanged shocked glances.

"Professor Oak? What are you doing there? And how come you don't have a shirt on?"

"Oh, hello, Ash," Professor Oak stammered, trying desperately to come up with a good excuse for being in Mrs. Ketchum's bedroom clad only in a towel. "I, uh, came over to visit your mother and she accidentally spilled something on my shirt. She was kind enough to let me take a shower while she did the laundry."

"Oh, okay," said Ash. "Is my mom around?"

__

Nice save, Samuel. And the story really was the truth, after all.

Now Brock, who knew better than to buy such a ridiculous excuse, heard the shower running in the background and correctly figured out the _real_ reason why Professor Oak had stopped by to visit Ash's mom. Winking, Brock gave him the "thumbs-up" sign.

Professor Oak choked and started turning bright red.

"Hey, Professor? Are you okay?" Ash asked.

A puzzled Misty grabbed Brock by the arm and dragged him aside. "What was that all about?" Brock took her aside and whispered in her ear. "You're kidding!" she exclaimed. "Professor Oak and Ash's mom were…"

"Samuel, who's on the phone?" Delia called from the other room.

"Oh, is that my mom?" Ash asked. "Can you put her on so I can talk to her?"

"Uh, wait just a second, Ash." Professor Oak dropped the receiver and ran into the bathroom.

While Ash was waiting for his mom, he noticed that Brock and Misty were looking at him in an odd way. "Hey, what's wrong with you two? You're both acting weird."

Misty stifled a laugh.

Just then, Delia, who was wearing a bathrobe, appeared on the screen. "Hi, honey! How are you? I was sorry that I missed your phone call yesterday."

"Hi, Mom! I just wanted to wish you a happy Thanksgiving, even if it's a day late. I was kind of worried that you might be lonely since I'm not there this year, but it looks like Professor Oak's been keeping you company."

Delia choked and started turning bright red.

"Hey, Mom? Are you okay?" 

"Uh, I'm fine, dear. I just…I…oh, sounds like the laundry's done. I've got to go. Talk to you later, sweetie. I love you. Bye." 

__

That's weird, Ash thought as hung up the telephone. _I didn't hear the washing machine buzz. And how come Mom was taking a shower at the same time Professor Oak was? Oh well, guess she wanted to conserve water or something._

As Ash turned around, he saw Brock and Misty trying desperately not to break down laughing. 

"What is it with you guys?" Ash exclaimed. "What's so funny?"

"You…you don't know, do you?" Brock giggled.

"Know? Know what?" an exasperated Ash exclaimed.

"He…he doesn't…" Misty collapsed in a fit of laughter.

Brock grinned and whispered in his young friend's ear. 

"MY MOM AND PROFESSOR OAK WERE DOING WHAT?????"

THE END


End file.
